Blogroll Jubilee!

Noted “reasonable conservative” blogger Jon Swift last year came up with the idea of a “Blogroll Amnesty Day”, sort of a jubilee during which the policy of “put me on your blogroll and I’ll put you on mine”1 would be in effect.

Now he reports that the idea is catching on, and that many blogs will be observing blogroll amnesty days on February 1, 2 & 3. Friends, I’m here to tell you that Wetmachine will be joining the fun too-also, subject to the proviso explained below the fold.

By my royal decree, the “John sez check these out” section of the Wetmachine blogroll to your right will be populated by Jon Swift’s blogroll amnesty rules, (as emended below), to wit:

“I will add anyone to my blogroll who adds me to theirs, whether conservative, liberal, moderate, libertarian or Albigensian, with the exception of spam or porn blogs or anything else your mother would be embarrassed to read.”

Modified Limited Emendation

I’m sure that Mr. Swift will appreciate my hat tip to the memory of the sublime ethos of the Nixon White House in further decreeing that I will observe a modified limited hangout limit of 72 links in my blogroll, which number is arrived at arbitrarily, but intended to keep the thing manageable. My jubiliee policy is in effect from now until such time as the limit is reached.

If you would like to be added to my blogroll, add me to yours, and send me your listing in the form thus wise:

Wetmachine
http://wetmachine.com/

You can either leave your particulars in the comments, or send via email to

mail [at sign][the name of my blog] dot com

1) Which reminds me, when I was in kindergarten, Diane Gillespie and I were aprehended by Teacher in the woods near the playground in the very act of “show me yours and I’ll show you mine.” Hadn’t remembered that in decades. Wonder how it shaped my personality in the years that followed?

9 Comments

Thank you very much for writing about this, but I must correct one small error. I did not actually come up with the idea of “Blogroll Amnesty Day.” That credit must go to Atrios of Eschaton, though for him Blogroll Amnesty Day meant quite the opposite of what it does now. When he decreed Blogroll Amnesty Day last year he was granting amnesty to himself so that he wouldn’t have to feel guilty about throwing blogs off his blogroll. We merely took his Orwellian concept and turned it on its head, granting true amnesty to other bloggers to swarm over the borders of our blog instead of deporting them off our blogrolls and calling it amnesty.

When, some time ago, in an Atrios “Friday Cat Blogging” photo, I saw the spines of some books by Douglas Hofstadter, I wrote to him & offered free copy of my astonishing book “Cheap Complex Devices”, winner of the Hofstadter Prize for machine-written narrative. Atrios never wrote back. So, for that and other reasons, he’s not on my blogroll, so there!

Oddly enough, although I have given Doug Hofstadter copies of my books, he hasn’t read them either, last time I talked to him.

So I guess I have challenges still.

I give you credit for the concept of blogroll amnesty in its “swarm over the borders and reside here with full benefits even though you were not born here” connotation.

Jon Swift is not only a reasonable conservative, he is also unusually humble for a conservative. I appreciate your doing something for Blogroll Amnesty Day. And I updated my Blogroll, though I had to do a search for your Blog since you dropped the wrong address in the comments. Several Blogs have indicated that they wanted to participate but that they may do so in different ways than just making a huge Blogroll.

BTW: This is an awesome Blog. You cover a lot of interesting topics that most of the Blogs I read do not. I will be back since my Blogroll is where I do most of my weekend reading.

You’re ON, though I call my blogroll “backslaps” to keep with my um . . . slapping theme. I guess I’m too late to join the party, though. Work has been nuts and I’m behind on my reading. If you could still see your way to adding me;

John’s Tweets

Russians made a concerted effort to turn Sanders supporters away from Clinton. Please direct me, if you will, to a Sanders supporter who has grappled with this fact in a serious or thoughtful way. (Not snarking; really asking.) https://t.co/oUBS0wThAj

Agree 100%. A public review is the best gift you can give an author, by far. ( In my case second-nicest is beer, not cookies. I can get beer or cookies without your help. But without your help I can't get a review.) Read a book. Write a review. Merry Christmas, & good cheer all.